Whitley’s reviewof Seven Day Fiancé (Love and Games #2) by Rachel Harris

Angelle Prejean is in a pickle. Her family is expecting her to come home with a fiancé—a fiancé who doesn’t exist. Well, he exists, but he definitely has no idea Angelle told her mama they were engaged. Tattooed, muscled, and hotter than sin, Cane can reduce Angelle to a hot mess with one look—and leave her heart a mess if she falls for him. But when she ends up winning Cane at a charity bachelor auction, she knows just how to solve her fiancé problem.

Cane Robicheaux is no one’s prince. He doesn’t do relationships and he doesn’t fall in love. When sweet, sultry-voiced Angelle propositions him, he hopes their little game can finally get her out of his head. He doesn’t expect her to break through all his barriers. But even as Angelle burrows deeper into his heart, he knows once their seven days are up, so is their ruse

I have to admit: fake-boyfriends/fiancés/husbands are a huge guilty pleasure for me.  So when I read the summary of Seven Day Fiancé, I thought it would be right up my alley.  And when I read all the reviews and hype for it, I got extra excited.  And yet, after reading it…I have to say, the excitement has waned.  I’m not sure; maybe it was a result of getting too hyped up more than the book itself, but I wasn’t all that impressed.

The characters in Seven Day Fiancé were about as stock as they come, complete with “call-her-fierce-but-don’t-show-it” heroine and a “bad-boy-who’s-actually-perfectly-nice” hero.  (Seriously, why was Cane ever considered bad?  Tattoos?  Nice guys have tattoos, too.)  I had no interest in the two, because they were just generally nice people having a generally nice time and generally being nice to each other.  General.  I mean, it was sweet, to be sure, but there wasn’t any real tension in the book.  If the characters aren’t going to be broken messes and generating their own tension, then it should come from the situation, and fake-fiancés are prime material for external tension.  Instead, however, their act went off without a hitch!  I was stuck with a book that was just nice people being nice to each other and then occasionally going into overwrought-lust-mode.  The only stabs at drama this book made were wrapped up quickly and without much in the way of real effort.

I will say, though, that it was very interesting to read about the country-Cajun setting for this book.  I liked the way it contrasted Cane’s “daymn, I thought I was Cajun, but you guys are a whole new level” attitude and the Prejeans’…well, whole new level of Cajun.

Rating: 3 out of 5

This book is available from Entangled: Bliss.  You can buy it here or here in e-format.